LN Mittal sees no M&A targets in India

NEW DELHI: World's richest Indian Lakshmi Mittal, known for creating the world's largest steel empire mostly through merger and acquisitions, on Wednesday said that there was no Indian company on his takeover radar.
     
"It is very unlikely that we get an M&A opportunity in India as Indian entrepreneurs are doing very well and whatever expansion we are planning in India would be through greenfield projects," Mittal said here.
    
"It is very unlikely for us to do an M&A deal in India," he said.
    
Globally, ArcelorMittal has spent 21 billion dollars in merger and acquisitions over the past couple of years in steel, iron ore and distribution deals, most of which have been in the US and Mexico, Mittal said.
    
The company plans to invest 50 billion dollars across the world, excluding India, to expand its steel making capacity from 110 MT to 130 MT by 2012, he said.
    
However, this investment would be mostly in brown-field expansion at its existing facilities.
    
Besides, the company plans to expand its iron ore capacity from 45 MT currently to 110 MT by 2012, which would be about 75 per cent of its requirements.
    
Some of the recent deals announced by Mittal include acquisition of Koppers' Monessen Coke Plant in the US, a 49-per cent stake in Brazilian mining company MPP, an electrical steel JV agreement with Valin in China, acquisition of Brazilian iron ore miner London Mining Brasil and acquisition of coking coal producer Concept Group.
    
The company has recently also acquired 100 per cent holding in Rolanfer Recyclage of France, besides acquisitions like Astralloy, Mid Vol Coal Group, Bayou Steel and Canadian metals recycler Bakermet.

Earlier this year, ArcelorMittal, whose CFO Aditya Mittal is said to keep an 80-page folder of potential takeovers on his desk, received its shareholders' nod for an equity capital expansion to meet its future M&A requirements.
    
At an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on May 13, the shareholders authorises the board to increase the company's share capital, so that it is in a position to issue shares for entering into potential growth opportunities such as merger and acquisition.
    
The company has said that it "considers it of paramount importance in the globalisation context of the steel industry to be in a position to issue additional shares as a mean to enter into potential growth opportunities and consequently conclude mergers, acquisitions or any other similar transactions, among others, by way of exchange of shares."
   
Recently, ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal's son and the company's Chief Financial Officer Aditya Mittal had mentioned in a media interview about an 80-page thick folder on his desk of potential takeovers with three deals a page. "That is the number of global opportunities," he had said.
   
Aditya is understood to have been the key man behind Mittal Steel's hostile takeover bid for Arcelor as well as a number of other M&A deals.
    
"I have been personally been involved in 20, but in charge of about 50," 32-year old Aditya told the Sunday Times. The publication noted that "he has probably headed more acquisitions than any young man alive."
    
The board has been authorised to increase the authorised share capital by 643.86 million euro, to about 7.08 billion euro, in order to "allow the issuance of new shares, within the limit of the authorised share capital, for mergers, acquisitions or similar transactions."